Bzzzzz...

No, this isn't a post about "Bee Movie", which coincidently hits theaters today. Although the movie does look promising, it has that Jerry guy after all, it's got to be funny, right. There isn't any one out there, bees included, that haven't heard about this movie. There's been some great Bzzzzz, I mean Buzz, about the movie these past few months thanks to Jerry's massive bankrolling for the adverts, or maybe it was the appearance on Oprah that did it. Anyway I thought it was smart of them to create a 'Bee Movie' myspace page where they now have over 7,000 friends and where they have uploaded all of their trailers and other videos for myspace users to pass on to each other. Below are some tips on creating a viral marketing campaign of your own.

Check out today's Top 20 Viral Videos on YouTube: Nightmare Before Xmas

Here are a few ideas from 'The Art of Buzz Blog' on making your campaign go viral.

1) Give It Away
Who doesn’t love free crap? Look at Hotmail. By giving away free email accounts, Hotmail grew to over 12 million subscribers in less than 2 years. Like any good startup, they got bought up by Microsoft for a meager $400 million, but only after agreeing to eliminate screaming.steve.ballmer115@hotmail.com from their records.

2) Make It Small
Proof positive that size doesn’t matter, its how you use it. In the latter part of the 19th century, Montgomery’s Ward was the king of the mail order catalogs, the Woot! of his time. How did Sears and Roebuck, a late entry into the mail order game, eventually rival and then surpass Montgomery’s Ward? Among the many brilliant ideas implemented by Richard Sears was the smaller catalog. Volume wise it remained just as thick as Montgomery’s Ward but as Sears explained when you place the two catalogs on your coffee table, you will almost always stack the smaller on top of the larger.

3) The Promise
Sears was also a man of catchy slogans such as "Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man" and more famously, "Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back." The miserly Sears didn’t want to give money back but it did put his integrity and that of the company front and center. My last washer and dryer combo is proof that his slogan was complete BS, but that’s besides the point.